#hrungnir

Hrungnir: "This one smells of clay! You have the necessary skills, do you not?"

Hrungnir, unusually, was a Jötunn who went to Valhöll after his death.  Even more curiously, he did not enter Valhöll after a valiant death in battle, but as the result of a lost bet.  Offered a wager by Odin that his horse Sleipnir was faster than Hrungnir's mount Gullfaxi, the Jötunn accepted and agreed to forfeit his head as the price for losing. Arriving in Valhöll, which was populated by warriors who endlessly drank and fought, Hrungnir became so drunk and argumentative that no-one could stand him and the gods had to take action.  Thor was sent to fight Hrungnir, who was armed with a whetstone.  This he hurled at Thor, who smashed it with Mjölnir.  Fragments of the stone landed in Midgard, and henceforth flint could be found in that land. One piece of the whetstone lodged in Thor's head, although by this point he had struck Hrungnir dead.  He fell and was pinned under the foot of the fallen Jötunn until rescued by the giantess Járnsaxa, who brought their infant child Magni to help.  Magni was so strong even as a child that he was able to free his father, even though all of the Aesir combined could not lift Hrungnir's foot.  Hrungnir was assisted in this fight by Mökkurkalfi, a giant constructed out of clay.  Although truly enormous, Mökkurkalfi was very slow and was terrified of Thor.  He was defeated by Thor's servant Thjálfi. An attempt was made to remove the stone fragment from Thor's head with the assistance of the sorceress Groa.  This was working well until Thor told her that he had recently assisted her husband Aurvandil and that he was on his way home.  Excited to be reunited with her husband, Groa forgot her magical chants and the stone remained stuck.